The present invention relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus incorporating a hard disc drive, an optical disc drive, a solid state drive, etc.
JP-A-2007-4707 has been proposed as a related art. This document discloses an assignment of realizing an interface device capable of accessing to a plurality of devices from a host device via a single serial interface. For a purpose of realizing the assignment, this document discloses a technique such that an interface, conformed to a serial ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) capable of connecting the devices with an external device, is incorporated respectively on the devices to thereby connect the devices with each other. Address map information is then created from a total amount of capacity of recording areas on all of the connected devices. In consequence, the host device can access to all other devices by causing connection with a single device.
In recent years, the interface conformed to the serial ATA standard has often been used for connecting personal computers (hereinafter, referred to as PC) with peripheral devices (device). The PC requires a serial ATA interface for each of the devices when the plural devices are connected to the PC. Further, the devices also require interface units, respectively. Therefore, connecting with the plural devices increases a power consumption caused by the interface units alone.
The above-mentioned background technique discloses that the host device transfers data with the plural devices via the single serial interface unit. However, it is required that a new interface conformed to the serial ATA is incorporated additionally and respectively on the devices, for connecting between the devices. In consequence, the power consumption is increased.
Further, there has been a function of such a port multiplier in the serial ATA standard. The port multiplier means a function of connecting the device having a single port incorporated with the plurality of serial ATA interfaces. By using this function, the host device may have one single ATA interface alone when the plural devices are connected to the host device. However, the power consumption is still increased since the respective devices require the serial ATA interface.